A new 3I/Atlas anomaly has been discovered and it would seem the Interstellar Object could be targeted at Jupiter , the measured non-gravitational acceleration post perihelium has altered Atlas's trajectory so it will come within Jupiter's gravitational influence , the Hill sphere , without the non-gravitational acceleration Atlas would have missed it.
13 anomalies from 1 object ..... I'm sure it's just a Comet with no tail.
Quote:The measured value of the non-gravitational acceleration of 3I/ATLAS, acquired during the month-long passage of 3I/ATLAS near perihelion, changed the value of min{D} at a level of 0.1 million kilometers. This magnitude of displacement in the minimum distance of 3I/ATLAS from Jupiter results from the measured non-gravitational acceleration value of 5x10^{-7} au per day squared as reported here, after the month-long perihelion crossing (where au is the Earth-Sun separation).
In other words, the non-gravitational acceleration introduced a small course correction of exactly the magnitude needed to bring the minimum distance of 3I/ATLAS from Jupiter to the value of Jupiter’s Hill radius. 3I/ATLAS would have missed the edge of the Hill sphere otherwise.
Quote:How statistically rare is the coincidence between the values of min{D} and H? A margin of 0.06 out of 53.5 million kilometers corresponds to a coincidence of one part in a thousand. But given the full diameter of Jupiter’s orbit around the Sun, this coincidence amounts to one part in 26,000.
If 3I/ATLAS were to deposit devices within the Hill sphere of Jupiter on March 16, 2026, these devices would need to fire their engines in order to cancel out the high speed of 3I/ATLAS relative to Jupiter, which is 65.9 kilometers per second. The escape speed from Jupiter’s gravitational potential well at H=53.5 million kilometers is just 2.2 kilometers per second.
Any new objects orbiting Jupiter after the passage of 3I/ATLAS, could be identified by the Juno spacecraft (as discussed here) or by other human-made orbiters around Jupiter. If we find technological satellites of Jupiter that we did not send, it would imply that Jupiter is of interest to an extraterrestrial civilization.
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/a-remarkable...0065c2cddf
13 anomalies from 1 object ..... I'm sure it's just a Comet with no tail.